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MIAMI (AP) -- First a thundershower interrupted Dontrelle Willis' bid for a ninth consecutive victory. Then came the Chicago Cubs' deluge of hits.

 

Willis failed to retire a batter following a 67-minute rain delay in the bottom of the second inning, and the Cubs ended the rookie's winning streak, beating the Florida Marlins 16-2 Sunday.

 

"They just had my number," Willis said. "It's baseball. That's the flip side of having success."

 

The Cubs totaled a season-high 20 hits, including nine doubles and a 484-foot home run by Sammy Sosa, his 19th.

 

"They had their hitting shoes on," Marlins manager Jack McKeon said. "Nothing we could do about it."

 

Chicago chased Willis (9-2) with six consecutive hits and a walk in the third. He was charged with six runs in the worst outing of his brief career, inflating his ERA from 2.08 to 2.67.

 

The left-hander pitched 5 2-3 shutout innings July 8 in his only previous appearance against the Cubs, who traded Willis to Florida last year.

 

"He just wasn't quite as sharp as he was the last time we faced him," manager Dusty Baker said. "Plus I think it helps that this was the second time we faced him. Some of the guys had a better idea what he threw and how to pick up the ball."

 

Baker drew criticism when he left Willis off the All-Star team before adding him as an injury replacement.

 

Willis declined to use the rain delay as an excuse, noting that Carlos Zambrano (7-8) overcame it. The Cubs right-hander allowed one run in 6 1-3 innings for his first victory in five starts.

 

"It's not like my side of the field was raining and his wasn't," Willis said. "You have to mentally prepare for rain. You live in South Florida, where it rains often."

 

Zambrano also drove in two runs and went 3-for-4, with two hits coming in the same inning.

 

Sosa's homer was the fourth-longest in 11 seasons at Pro Player Stadium and the longest since 1998. The eighth-inning clout landed in the 12th row of the upper deck inside the left-field foul pole.

 

"Everybody came out today and swung the bat," Sosa said. "Everybody had a good game."

 

Trenidad Hubbard drove in two runs and went 4-for-5 -- his first hits since being recalled July 7 from Triple-A.

 

"Hitting can be contagious, and I guess I was the carrier today," Hubbard said. He also made a leaping catch in center field.

 

Jose Hernandez had three RBI for the Cubs. They matched their season high in runs when Alex Gonzalez hit a three-run homer in the ninth, his 13th.

 

Willis walked two in the first before retiring five in a row. Then came the cloudburst, followed by the Cubs' outburst.

 

Zambrano led off the third with a towering double off the wall. Mark Grudzielanek reached on an infield single, and Hubbard doubled home the first run.

 

Next came three hits on three pitches. Sosa drove in a run when he topped a 40-foot single, Moises Alou hit an RBI double, and Eric Karros doubled home two runs to make it 5-0. When Willis walked the next batter, McKeon took him out, and the crowd of 25,574 gave the popular rookie a big ovation as he trudged to the dugout.

 

"It was nice, but I was kind of upset with myself," Willis said.

 

"There are going to be days like that, I don't care who you are -- Cy Young or anybody," McKeon said. "He'll rebound and be the same old D-Train next time out."

 

Chicago wasn't finished -- Zambrano's two-out single off Tommy Phelps made it a six-run inning.

 

The Cubs were due after totaling nine hits and one run in the first two games of the series. The earned runs were the first allowed by the Marlins in 23 innings.

 

"That was much needed for our offensive confidence," Baker said.

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